Will You Be My Armor Bearer?

                     Health and Faith

 

April 2015 I had a dream. I found myself at a day time house party. The atmosphere was nice and the crowd was mature, but it felt weird being there. I ran into Dr Reid - a woman I know. She seemed very impressed with me and asked if I’d be her Armor Bearer for an event coming up. I was extremely hesitant because in real life I know what being an Armor Bearer entails and quite frankly it’s not fun. Despite my feelings about that role, I told her yes. I knew this was only going to be a one-time thing. She told me the month but I couldn’t remember if she said June, July or Sept? The number 7 came up several times throughout the dream. Then I woke up.

Upon waking, I researched what type of Dr Mrs Reid is. I discovered she’s a Gastroenterologist. This branch of medicine focus' on the digestive system (Wikipedia). As I pondered this dream, I knew it was significant because of the number 7. When God is involved he'll use the number 7 to symbolize completion or something coming to an end. I understood the dream had something to do with the GI system but wasn't sure if it was in regards to myself or someone else that I should be praying for? See, an Armor Bearer’s role in the church is to pray for, look out for, encourage, and assist the Pastor / Bishop / First Lady (in whatever capacity) so they can be effective in performing the ministry they’ve been called to do. Side note: An Armor Bearer in the church is not scriptural, but many Pastors have them. As long as this role does not jeopardize a person’s salvation or contradict the written word… There's no harm in being an Armor Bearer. 

After a few months of racking my brain trying to figure this dream out, and making sure myself and my loved ones received yearly physicals and colonoscopies… the months of June, July and September of 2015 passed with no manifestation of the dream, so I decided to give it a rest, stop worrying and move on with life. 

Moving on with life consisted of me continuing to nurse a cervical herniated disc in my neck that caused me pain in my head, back, arms and legs. Every night I would gobble a couple of NSAIDs (ibuprofen) that would help me fall asleep comfortably. I followed this routine for close to a year. Not smart! Finally, in August of 2016, I decided I’d had enough of depending on those pills and I stopped taking them. In September of 2016, I began to feel burning pains along the walls of my stomach after I’d eat. I went to the hospital and basically diagnosed myself with “Possible Gastritis” and my doctor went along with it! Smh. My doctor didn’t feel I needed an endoscopy because my symptoms seemed to indicate Gastritis. So my Dr prescribed 20 mg of Omeprazole for me to take. I felt these pills were masking the problem so I didn't stay on them. I didn’t think too much of it and figured it would go away on its own. Wrong...

Thanksgiving Day rolls around and like most folk, I went in on that food! That evening my stomach was burning so bad. I said to myself, I’m not going to eat any more of that! What did I do the next day? I ate more of that... smh. It seemed like this “Possible Gastritis” was getting worse. I headed back to my doctor and she convinced me to go back on those stinking pills.

I began to do lots and lots of research on Gastritis and other GI diseases. I was completely obsessed with researching how to cure myself of this pain naturally. Every day I’d make note of the different foods I could and could not eat. I learned that abusing NSAIDS was part of the reason I was suffering. While on this journey it dawned on me that the dream was in full effect. The pain started in September. No wonder I was so hesitant to say yes to Dr Reid – who symbolized God by the way. 

God had given me the dream to prepare me for a journey of Health and Faith. I had no clue as to how this thing was going to unfold and believe me, it has not been a walk in the park. Let me be clear, God did not give me this affliction. God does not give us sickness and disease. God took advantage of this situation to teach me how to be the Armor Bearer of my own body. To take better care of it and to make changes in the way my household and I ate. My faith in God was also stretched... But I truly learned, "Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all!" - Psalm 34:19   

In a follow-up post, I will share my journey and provide pics. May my story enlighten you and encourage you to be The Armor Bearer of your own body as well. See you in the next post! Click on Link: I'm The Armor Bearer of My Body

Blessings,

Tytenisha